Park Enclave: Cash-starved civic agency to sell 100 more plots

CDA has spent almost all revenue collected against Park Enclave plots for other purposes

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has offered another 100 plots in Park Enclave in a bid to raise funds for the development of the upscale housing project.

“The price of a one-kanal (500 square yards) plot has yet to be determined, but it will be between Rs17 million to Rs20 million,” CDA Member Finance Arbab Sher Bahadur said. He said the costing department of the CDA was working out the prices and they would be announced before November 12, when the CDA starts receiving applications for the plots.

Bahadur said all 100 plots would be sold through open balloting. A candidate can apply for only one plot. He said this is to encourage more public participation in the process.

Successful applicants will have to submit 30 per cent of the total cost as down payment, while the rest of the cost would be paid in two equal installments. The last date for submission of applications is December 17, according to an advertisement released by the CDA.

The project, which is located in Zone-IV of the capital at the intersection of Park Road and Kuri Road, was launched in July 2011. The inauguration ceremony for development work took place in February 2012, but in the 33 months since, the CDA has built only a boundary wall.

Initially, 613 plots each measuring 500 square yards were sold out through open balloting and the cost of each plot was Rs12 million. The allottees, however, have refused to pay installments due to non-development of the area. A group of allottees also moved the courts against the CDA.

Transparency International Pakistan had also raised concerns over alleged rigging of the balloting process, as a disproportionate number of politicians and journalists were given plots at choice locations.

Bahadur, however, says the authority has enough funds to complete the development of Park Enclave in time.

The CDA recently reinitiated developmental work at the site and asked the allottees to submit outstanding installments according to a revised schedule.

As per plan, 60 per cent of the total proceeds were supposed to be spent on the project, but the civic agency has been violating the board’s decisions due to paucity of funds. Of the Rs2.7 billion collected against 613 plots, the CDA has already spent around Rs2.5 billion for contingency payments, staff salaries, and other running expenses.

Some Rs33 million have been refunded to investors who were no longer interested in building a house in the CDA’s ‘dream housing scheme’, while the remaining Rs2.467 billion were used up for non-developmental expenditure including staff salaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2014.